Chapter 63
Chapter 63
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 63
Chapter Title: Heart-Pounding Great Adventure (4)
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While Seoran was bickering with the monkey yokai in the Eastern Continent, the Western Continent was in an uproar.
As soon as Seoran fell into the ventilation duct, the leadership immediately launched Operation: Rescue Ryu Seoran.
Up to this point, no one was worried.
A Core Formation Cultivator wouldn't get hurt from simply slipping from a high place.
It was the kind of funny mishap that would blow over quickly.
A cultivator who specialized in spirit beasts sent his pet butterfly into the ventilation duct.
The glowing butterfly followed its master's orders and descended all the way to the end of the duct.
But Seoran was nowhere to be seen.
The cultivator sharing vision with the butterfly spoke up.
"Ryu the Cultivator isn't down there?"
"Oh no!"
The rescue operation commander clutched the back of his neck.
When in a disaster situation, the rescue target's job was to wait quietly in a safe spot for the rescue team.
Wandering around was not a wise choice.
If they missed each other, it would turn into a huge headache.
Ideally, stay put and wait right there—incidentally, the rules for getting lost were about the same.
"First, let's check the surroundings. Find out where she went."
The commander's instructions went from the cultivator to the glowing butterfly underground.
The light from the spirit beast butterfly grew even more brilliant.
The dark stone chamber lit up in an instant.
The butterfly's owner, scanning the chamber through the shared vision, spoke.
"Look, this place is a perfect sealed room. The only entrance to the chamber looks like it collapsed ages ago."
"What? Wasn't the ventilation duct a straight shot?"
"It was."
"Any particularly noticeable features?"
The cultivator fell silent for a moment, concentrating, then spoke.
"There's a strange pattern engraved on the floor."
"Draw it here once."
The cultivator sketched it out as best he could.
It was a pattern none of the commander or rescue team had ever seen.
At that moment, an archaeologist who had been watching spoke up.
"That looks like an ancient Teleportation Array pattern."
The commander's expression turned grave.
The rescue target hadn't wandered off like a lost child sightseeing the ruins.
Ryu Seoran had fallen through the ventilation duct and, unfortunately, stepped on a Teleportation Array right below, vanishing into thin air.
What had started as a laughable incident had become a real disaster.
The leadership convened immediately.
They discussed while maintaining as much composure as possible.
"Can't we send a rescue team through the Teleportation Array?"
"Unfortunately, it's broken on the other side."
"Search the entire continent on a massive scale?"
"That might tip off hostile sects and put Ryu the Cultivator in even more danger."
"Better to keep it small-scale and discreet."
"We need to tightly control the cultivators on site to prevent any leaks."
"For the public, we say her heart demons flared up again and she's in secluded cultivation? She hasn't gone out much since last winter anyway—it's plausible enough."
"That's a great idea. To avoid suspicion, we'll only tell her closest confidants and ask for their cooperation."
"Everyone, don't worry too much. Ryu the Cultivator is already at Core Formation. She has the ability to escape danger and return to us safely."
Once countermeasures were in place, everyone resumed their normal routines.
Officially, Ryu Seoran had simply holed up in her room.
Besides the high-ranking cultivators, the only ones in the know were her close friends: Ho Hye-mun, Dancheong, Geum Yeongyeong, and Yi Agum.
Naturally, even the Medicine Hall's pill refiners were clueless.
So they prepared pills for Ryu Seoran to eat with the mindset of, "Thought it was over, but nope, round two."
Yi Agum, in charge of pill-feeding duty, entered Seoran's room with today's batch.
A figure bundled up in blankets lay on the bed.
It was a dummy placed there for disguise.
To an outsider, it looked just like the real Ryu Seoran.
Yi Agum stroked the dummy and muttered.
"Sister, where on earth did you go..."
The fake Ryu Seoran (the dummy) refused the pills again, so Yi Agum ate them all without leaving any behind.
The great showgirl Seoran's escape magic act was a resounding success.
*****
The century's magician, Ryu Seoran, who had vanished without a trace, was at that very moment slurping noodles at a restaurant.
Topped with heaps of garnishes, a deluxe bowl at that.
The meal, of course, was on Dan Wonpyo.
Dan Wonpyo, who had been listening intently across from her, spoke.
"I see. So that's the situation."
What Seoran had spun was this:
Her name was Ryu Seoran, age two hundred and forty.
Born to a farming family, she began cultivating around age ten.
Her master was a cultivator passing by nearby.
Afterward, she followed her master into seclusion in the Great Forest.
After her master passed, she had been in closed-door cultivation ever since.
Her youthful appearance was due to messing up a medicinal soup as a child.
For the record, her storage pouch was lost during a yokai extermination.
That was the gist of her backstory.
A mix of truth and lies, properly blended.
Dan Wonpyo didn't suspect Seoran's fibs.
Truth be told, even if he did, there was no way to verify them.
Dan Wonpyo said with an admiring expression.
"Over two hundred years in closed-door cultivation—truly impressive. Most can't endure even ten years... Then again, with such extraordinary willpower, you reached Core Formation even as a lone cultivator."
Lone cultivator referred to those not affiliated with any cultivation sect, living wild and free.
Without a backing organization to support their training, advancement was excruciatingly slow.
As far as Seoran knew, even Single Spirit Root Holders took decades to reach Foundation Establishment.
Seoran slurped her noodles and added an explanation.
"Well, I got lucky. My master had all sorts of pills stocked up. Yeah, really lucky."
"I see."
To be honest, Seoran was feeling a bit anxious.
She couldn't reveal she was from the Black Bamboo Sect of the Western Continent, so she had no choice but to claim lone cultivator status.
But on second thought, reaching Core Formation as a lone cultivator didn't make sense either.
So she hurriedly changed the subject.
"Never mind me—what about you? You're impressive too. For a lone cultivator to reach Foundation Establishment is like plucking stars from the sky."
Dan Wonpyo, a Dual Spirit Root Holder, was a Foundation Establishment Cultivator.
Word was he'd succeeded at age forty-seven.
The average age for sect-backed Dual Spirit Root Holders to reach Foundation Establishment was around thirty, by Seoran's knowledge.
For a lone cultivator without any sect support, it was astonishing.
Hearing the praise, Dan Wonpyo humbly demurred.
"Oh, no, that's too much. Foundation Establishment like plucking stars? You're exaggerating. Forty-seven isn't even that fast. Other Dual Spirit Root Holders often succeed in their late thirties."
Seoran's common knowledge of cultivation was completely overturned.
Even for Dual Spirit Roots, a lone cultivator hitting Foundation Establishment in their late thirties?
Without even a decent sect?
What? No matter how she thought about it, it didn't add up.
She was extremely puzzled but didn't show it.
The Eastern Continent's cultivator common sense was worlds apart from the Western Continent's.
There had to be some key reason for the difference.
She was curious about the secret that allowed even primitive solo cultivation to outpace Western lone cultivators.
Intercontinental industrial spy Ryu Seoran bided her time.
The opportunity came sooner than expected.
As they finished eating and stood, Dan Wonpyo asked as if he'd just remembered.
"Oh, right—are you heading back to the Great Forest too, Senior Ryu? After ending such a long seclusion, you should mingle with other lone cultivators. If you're interested, come with me."
Seoran said, puzzled.
"Hm? To the Great Forest? Planning to hunt monkey yokai or something?"
Hearing that, Dan Wonpyo waved his hands.
"No, no—the deep layers aren't what I meant. I'm talking about Taibon Valley in the outer layers. I'd never survive venturing deep into the Great Forest for training anyway."
Seoran had just learned that the Great Forest was divided into deep and outer layers.
"Taibon Valley?"
As Seoran muttered, Dan Wonpyo explained on his own.
"Yes, Taibon Valley. The neutral city of lone cultivators and Five Elements Treefolk, the final bastion confining the Great Forest's yokai. You've never heard of it?"
Seoran brazenly pretended to know.
"Ah, Taibon Valley! Of course I've heard of it—basic knowledge! Taibon Valley's in the outer Great Forest, right? Two hundred years in seclusion, I just blanked for a sec!"
"As expected! It'd be absurd not to know a famous training spot like Taibon Valley!"
"Right, common sense!"
"Let's go—I'll lead the way!"
Laughing heartily, the two entered the Great Forest.
Seoran claimed her flying artifact broke during yokai extermination and rode Dan Wonpyo's instead.
After flying for a few days, a massive valley loomed in the heart of the dense Great Forest.
A valley shaped like the roots of giant trees—hence Taibon Valley.
It was territory of the Five Elements Treefolk spirit tree race.
Naturally, no external cultivation sects could set foot there—it was an absolute no-trespass zone.
Lone cultivators, however, were free to come and go.
Despite the abundant spirit energy, it remained unclaimed by sects—a land flowing with milk and honey of opportunity.
Once Taibon Valley's existence became known to the Eastern Continent's cultivation world, lone cultivators swarmed like clouds.
Now, it had evolved into a unique ecosystem where Five Elements Treefolk and lone cultivators coexisted.
Seeing lone cultivators clustered thickly on one street in Taibon Valley, Seoran asked.
"What are those people doing?"
Looking where Seoran pointed, Dan Wonpyo said.
"Ah, that's the Scholars' Street. They share info for realm advancement, or pay spirit stones for teachings if needed. Most hope to raise their realms diligently and join a major sect on better terms."
Seoran vaguely nodded, reminded of exam prep villages back home.
"Dedicating oneself to learning is admirable."
Dan Wonpyo said wistfully.
"I used to immerse myself in cultivation there too. Ran out of spirit stones, though... Plan to earn some and resume studying. Any spells you're particularly interested in, Senior Ryu? Pay spirit stones, and they teach anything."
Seoran said without much hope.
"Well, puppetry catches my eye... But it's such a fringe spell."
The sorrow of fringe spells.
She'd stopped even expecting anything.
To Seoran, puppetry was an endlessly lonely art.
But Dan Wonpyo said something unbelievable.
"Pardon? Puppetry's a mainstream spell—common knowledge, isn't it? Over half the instructors there are puppeteers. No idea what you mean. Was puppetry fringe two hundred years ago or something?"
Stunned, Seoran cried out.
"What?!"
She had stumbled upon puppetry heaven out of nowhere.
Seoran decided the Eastern Continent was rapidly growing on her.